| Title |
Modernity and Regionalism of American Art Deco Architecture - Focused on Miami Beach - |
| Keywords |
Art Deco ; American Deco ; Modernity ; Regionalism ; Miami |
| Abstract |
Art Deco is a decorative and eclectic design style, popularized at the interwar period. The term Art Deco derives from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes held in Paris in 1925. The aim of the exposition was to create new modern aesthetics. This exposition introduced the modern decorative and industrial art to the world and influenced all designers of area, including architects, interior designers, industrial designers, craftsmen, fashion designers, etc. Art Deco designers applied inspirations from a variety of sources and movements such as the Cubist abstract, the Neoclassical refinement, Egyptian exotic elements, Babylonian and Aztec temples, the machine aesthetic, avant-garde movements, etc to their modern works. Art Deco style rapidly spread all over the design areas nationwide in America. In Art Deco architecture, in particular, its inception was French but its domination was American. Skyscrapers, airplanes, automobiles, ocean liners, jazz, Hollywood film, streamline, and native Indian symbols are the defining features of American Art Deco. This study began from questions on how these features are expressed and stylized to decoration elements as the modern aesthetics in American Art Deco architecture. Thus, the purpose of the study is to find out the ornamental and eclectic factors of Art Deco style and to define a concept of the modernity and the regionalism of Art Deco architecture in America. This article provides an overview of the decoration style of Art Deco architecture in America through the analysis of ornamental and eclectic factors reflecting diverse roots. It also analyzes the wide variety of building examples of American Art Deco which represent regionalism. In addition, this study focuses on Art Deco architecture in Miami, Florida. Miami is one of typical cities that has the most unique regional aspects of 1920's to 1940's in Art Deco architecture. Miami Art Deco architecture reveals the tropical and nautical references such as streamlined and curved walls, exotic animal motifs, flora and fauna motifs, and marine motifs: use of glass block, porthole window, terra-cotta, and pastel color stucco. |